I’m doing an actual project finally that I’m trying to keep clean looking, cheap, and strong. I had some red oak that I planned down to 5/8” thick (wood was cupped). I am wondering what the best approach would be to join a butt joint where the plans show pocket holes being used. I do not have a pocket hole jig. Can you use dowels or would the best and strongest approach be the pocket holes? Any advice is greatly appreciated.

dowels will work just as well, you’d just need to clamp it though (pocket screws act as a clamp so clamps are less important when using screws). make sure the the joint is nice and clean/flat and smooth to create the best glue surface you can.

If time isn’t an issue, you could always use biscuits or a spline dowels work well but tend to make perfect alignment easier said than done If you don’t have a dowel jig already a spline would be easiest short of just butt joining and clamping.

You can also do a stub tenon and mortise for this.You’ll loose a little bit of width forming the stub tenon, but at least you won’t have to make a spline.Although you need to make these w/ zero slop, any slop that shows up doubles w/ loose tenons vs mortise & tenon.Are you joining end grain, long grain, or both?

What’s the joint going to be supporting? Based on strength tests conducted by WOOD magazine a couple of years ago, the order of selection from strongest to weakest would be: mortise and tenon, pocket hole screws, doweled butt joint, splined butt joint, pure butt joint. If the joint will be under stress, I would do M&T but my shop is well equipped to make those quickly and easily. If you’re not in that situation but need strength, I’d recommend buying a pocket hole jig: they’re remarkably useful and I guarantee it won’t be the last time you reach for it. On the extreme other end of the scale if the joint is basically decorative and won’t be under any load, do whatever method is quickest and easiest for you.

I guess I’m “old fashioned” but I just can’t warm up to pocket jigs. I’ll use biscuits or dowels as first choice. On many projects dowels, cut from contrasting wood is a nice decorative touch. If strength is a requirement, I’ll use wood screws and cut plugs to cover the countersunk screw heads. Done carefully, they are practically invisible.

Thanks for the replies everyone. It sounds like I will be safe doing the dowels due to the fact that there won’t be much weight on it. I haven’t worked with Mortise and tenon joints before and I think that the first time I try it I want to do it on something a little thicker. Hopefully I will have some pics of the project up soon.